By Leanne Jorari – EMTV News, Port Moresby
Following the aftermath of Cyclone Guba in 2007, villagers in the Oro province are taking matters into their own hands regarding food security.
Small scale rice farms have begun popping up around the province, with farmers looking at growing rice for personal consumption.
Derrick Seboda is a young rice farmer from Konjeh village in the Ijivitari district. In 2007, Cyclone Guba devastated his village and his food crop; and the road to recovery was a long and arduous one. The cyclone had a major impact on water supply and subsistence food supply was affected.
Villagers responded by purchasing store food – mainly imported rice in much greater volumes than normal.
Seeing the threat natural disasters caused to the villagers’ livelihood and to food security, Derrick begin to trial rice production in some of the villages along the Kikiri road using less water and less chemicals.
Small scale rice production however, doesn’t come without challenges and in experiencing these, Derrick has appealed to the Provincial Government to support where they can.
